Proprietary Software is Bad for Your Health, Not Just Your Finances, Privacy and So On
Maybe it gives temporary calm/relief, but is that actually good for you? Or merely a digital (gateway) drug?
THE OTHER day we cited a new blog post that said something to the effect of, just keep walking, stop counting the steps. That responded to a new or recent reality wherein people obsessed over "apps" and "data" for everything, even their bodily motions. For many, mass surveillance has become a pseudo-comfort zone. Companies like Apple sell surveillance to people as health, safety, and fitness. They've done this for years already. Many got conned or - putting it more mildly - misled into the belief that the more data they collect/share, the better off they will be*.
Such "apps" are almost always proprietary. There's a reason for that. People who develop Free software (and would seldom use a word like "app") aren't interested in spying and barely have back end infrastructure to collect data from users. From a philosophical perspective, and moreover knowing the target audience (users), there's no incentive to go in that direction. The users sort of drive "demand" and the demand/s they make include human decency, dignity. If they didn't care, they might just buy some "i" thing from Apple.
I do not use "apps" and I find lists of "most popular" (as in, most downloaded) "apps" rather repulsive. Their sole intent or business model revolves around data collection. To the user it might seem handy and convenient, but the user is just the product or "data supplier".
It's very difficult to find sincere news reports about such "apps" saving people's lives. One is more likely to die for driving while using some "app" (or getting distracted by one). Many pedestrians also die for using "apps" on their so-called 'phones' instead of paying attention to the road/vehicles.
When walking in nature, many people stare at garbage in social control media instead of soaking in the unsurpassable beauty of reality itself. What a missed opportunity to unwind.
Being able to "disconnect" (not just literally, also metaphorically) is very important. Many people who suffer from FOMO might never understand this. They're like "chain smokers". Nobody ever lost a true friend for not keeping "on top" of social control media gossip.
"I keep my phone on Do Not Disturb all the time and only allow contacts and people who call twice within 5 minutes to ring through," Ryan says in IRC. "Usually it's just not important. After a while you have all the people you want to talk to on a whitelist and the others don't even ring. The phone even screens them for me if they're not on the contact list. So it doesn't even go to voicemail unless they say who they are.
Then there's the aspect of sleep; I had friends who got "apps" and/or gadgets for tracking their sleep. In practice, however, they were measuring mostly meaningless nonsense (while uploading lots of personal data to a "mother ship") and various "apps" with notifications and other stimuli ruined their sleep. It's harder to attain much-needed deep sleep with a gadget near the bed or even at the corner of the bedroom.
People like to sell Free software by stressing words/terms like 'freedom', which may fly right over people's heads. Maybe health aspects can be explained to people, not limited to mental health but also physical health. Just because some "apps" can display some numbers and transmit those to GAFAM (i.e. to the MElon and Cheeto regime**) doesn't mean someone will care or heal or send medication; worse yet, that data might be used to discriminate against oneself in future health policies. Surveillance begets "score" and people being scored typically means they rack up a bunch of negatives, not positives.
"I genuinely dislike apps," Ryan says in IRC. "I use F-Droid for most of them, including one that acts as a pseudo-VPN. It's called TrackerControl. It blocks all the mobile ad and fingerprinting networks and stuff. You have to mess with it sometimes until an app works, but it blocks the phone home libraries and ads and stuff. Honestly the amount of work you have to do so most of the world can't contact you or advertise to you is a lot. But worth it. Otherwise it's usually scammers and things. Sales calls. All kinds of garbage. Waking me up even."
It would be interesting to see some charts, based on some long-term study, comparing the general health (blood pressure, BMI etc.) of people who use proprietary stuff and people who do not. A clinical trial would demand that the demography or populations are roughly the same for both groups***. █
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* It is widely recognised that the gambling industry knows the allure of quantification, hence the adoption of meaningless things such as "likes" and metrics like "impressions" (not the same as reads). Counting "steps" or "miles" leads to a false belief that if the counting stops, then activity ceases to happen (because it does not get registered accurately and meticulously).
** We generally refuse to use the real name and give publicity to corrupt dictators who love seeing their name (brand) everywhere.
*** A smaller experiment with identical twins might work, but as they'd have to be adults they likely adopted different lifestyles already (and diverged along health lines as well).